Today’s “Fun Friday” post comes from the Venice bird rookery, located in the middle of Venice, Florida. As I photographed the nesting and roosting birds at the rookery, there constantly seemed to be some action going on at the far end of the island, so I picked up my equipment and moved down to see what was going on. A pair of juvenile Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) happened to be in a nest that was immediately adjacent to a nest that a Great Egret (Ardea alba) was occupying. Don’t know for sure, but it sure looked like the great egret was incubating eggs. Anyway, one of the juvenile great blue herons was constantly harrassing the great egret, poking at it and wanting to play … hmmm, seems like human kids, don’t they!
Here is a nice shot of the 2 great blue heron juvies in their nest. Even though they are posing nicely, something about them looks a bit ornery, doesn’t it!
And here is a series of images of the interaction between one of the great blue heron chicks and the great egret:
First of all, it’s quite amazing that so many birds nest and roost on the rookery island. And then it is so interesting to see that the nests of the different species of birds are so close to each other (and I’ll be sharing more images of the Venice Rookery, where you will see that it is very difficult … almost impossible, to capture one species, without including another one!). And I’ll be sharing more about the Great Egret, who happens to be in splendid breeding plumage with those long plumes on the back and the lime-green lores (the distance from the front of the eye to the base of the bill).
Photo Equipment Used:
- Canon 7D body
- Canon EF500mm, f/4 IS lens
- Gitzo 1258-LVL Carbon Fiber tripod, with Wemberley gimball head
- ISO 400
- Aperture f/9
- Shutter 1/500 sec.